Warning: Child Poverty Is Hazardous to Our Health

The reports come so often that we shrug them off. Over and over, child and youth watchdog Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond tells us the British Columbian government has failed yet again to protect children.

Again and again, B.C. is the province with the most poor families with children. As the political mantra goes, no one cares so it doesn't matter.

It is not just a B.C. problem. The Conference Board of Canada points out that15.1 per cent of Canada's children live in poverty. That's one in seven of all the kids in the country. It's scant consolation that the poverty rate among American children is over 20 per cent. In the Nordic countries, the rate is two to three per cent.